Improvement in grain and grass harvesters



UNITED t TATES' WALTER'A. WOOD, OF Hoosiox FALLS, New YORK.

IMPROVEMENT lN GRAIN AND GRASS HARl/ESTERS.

Specification formingv part of Letters Patent No. l2,570, dated March 20, 1855.

- To'all whom it may ccncern:

Beit known that I, WALTER A. W'OOD, of

`Hoosick Falls, in the county of Rensselaer and `State of New York, have invented certain new andusefullmprovementsinReapingMachines; and I do hereby declare the following to be a iull, clear, and exact description of the same, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, making a part thereof,inwhich- Figure l represents a perspective view of the reaper. Fig. 2 represents a detached portion thereof.

Similar letters, where they occur iu both gures, denote'like parts.

The nature of my invention consists in making the inner face of the supporting-wheel conical, for the purpose of causing it to act as a track-clearer for the return-swath, and also in forming upon the platform a space between 'the cutting-point at that end ot' the machine next the driving-wheel and the frame sufficient to contain as much cut grain as will make a bundle or sheaf before it is raked therefrom by the operator.

To enable others skilled in theJ art to make and use my invention, I will proceed to describe the same with reference to the drawings, conlining thedescription to those parts especially which I deem new.

The flame of the machine is made in any ot' the usual well-known ways, with a main diving and supporting wheel,B,^thereon, which has a tier of cogged teeth, C, on its innerfacc, which work into a pinion onthe same shaft the machine.

J is the foot-board for the driver to brace i against in retainil'ig his seat.

By operating the lever I the front of the machinemay be raised Orlowered at pleasure.

Kis a piece forming the frame at that end of the machine which runs inthe standing grain, and is provided` with the customary shoe, L. The' supporting-wheel M is hung on the `piece K, which covers almost the entire wheel, ex-

cept its inner face, as seen" in Fig. 2, to keep the cut grain from winding or entangling thereon. The inner face, N, of the wheel M is in the form of a truncated cone, which as it rolls along in contact with the cut grass forces it out of the line oflthe track of said conical part, so that a track will be cleared by it for the part of the machine which runs over this track upon the return-swath when the machine is converted into a mower and the platform removed.

I am aware that a cone separate from the supporting-wheel, and which revolves ou an axis parallel with the line of motion of the reaper, hasrbeen used, and of course I do not claim such a conical track-clearer, my invention resting upon the making ot' the cone on the supporting-wheel,.which must of necessity have motion,'and by this means l dispense with several pieces of machinery and get equally as good a result.

O is the platform upon which the cut grain falls, and this platform may be extended rearward by au additional picce,l?,on which a seat or support for the operator may be placed. The black line wm, Fig. l, represents about the line of the cutters at that end of the machine, or, in other words, the line ot' the standing grain. Between that line maand the side frame, Q, there is a space left into which the'operator rakes the grain from the platform, as it is cut and dropped thereon, until enough is accumulated to form a shea-f or bundle, when it is raked off onto the ground in rear of the machine for the binders. The so arranging and disposing of the several `parts of the machine as to preserve this space without detrimentv to the machine is what I claim in this part of my invention; and I would here take occasion to remark that small as these things may apparently seem they were only contrived after repeated experiments, and have proven themselves highly valuable in practice; and it should, moreover, be borne in mind that al though reaping-machines have been known foi fifty years they have been impracticable unti within avery few lvears, a nd only since the de tails of the machine have been perfected hav( they been entirely successful, the principle re mainin'g unchanged.

Having thus fully described the nature of my invention, I wouldl state that I am aware that a conical track-clearer separate and independent ot' the bearing-wheel has been usedv in mowing-machines. Thisldonotclaim; but the forming` of a quadrangular space on the What I do claim as new, and desire to secure platform between the end ot' the cutting-point by Letters Patent, isand the frame ofthe machine sufficient to hold l. Making the inner face of the supportingas much grain aswill makea. bundleorsheaf bewheel conical, for the purpose of clearing the fore it is raked from the machine, as described. track for the next or return swath of the machine, as described. W ALTER A. WOOD.

2. I do not claim :Lreserved space in general Witnesses: on the platform between the end of the cutting- A. B. STOUGHTON,

point and the frame; but what I do claim is l Trios. H. UPPERMAN. 

